Labour has resistered its biggest poll lead since Liz Truss was prime minister, with the party now sitting 30 points ahead of Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives.
A new YouGov survey suggests the Tories would hold on to just 13 seats in a general election, with Labour enjoying a 452-seat majority.
The poll, carried out for The Times, showed Labour on 48 per cent and the Conservatives on 18 per cent – just five points ahead of Reform UK among people who said they would vote and expressed a preference.
It would mean the party’s support is lower than at any point since Mr Sunak became prime minister in October 2022, following Ms Truss’s disastrous 49-day administration.
The polling comes as a senior Tory said the prime minister is ultimately to blame for the chaos engulfing the party.
Asked whether Mr Sunak is to blame for the Conservatives’ problems, Tees Valley mayor Lord Houchen said: “Ultimately it always rests on the shoulders of the leader, all responsibility goes back to the top, it’s the same in my job as well. Ultimately, you’re the one responsible for it.
“But there are lots of people who are involved in the problems with the Conservative Party. It’s a bit of chaos at the minute, right, isn’t it?
“There’s lots of people fighting with each other in the Conservative Party, there are defections going on, and ultimately the public do not vote for parties who are not united and are not presenting a united front and also aren’t talking to the public.
“If they’re fighting with each other like rats in a sack instead of saying to the public ‘this is what we’re going to do for you’, that doesn’t win elections.
“Obviously, it ultimately lies with Rishi but there are lots of people that need to get their act together, stop messing about and start talking to the public about what they can offer them, rather than just fighting with each other.”
The Conservatives suffered a mauling from the electorate in last week’s contests, losing nearly 500 council seats, the West Midlands mayoral race and the Blackpool South by-election.
Mr Sunak suggested the results showed the general election, expected this autumn, would produce a hung parliament, with labour falling short of a majority.
Pollsters described the claim, based on an expert’s extrapolation of the results to a national level, as deluded.
The Liberal Democrats would be the official opposition if the results of the poll were reflected at the ballot box, with Sir Ed Davey’s party winning 44 seats.
The poll also comes after Mr Sunak was rocked by the defection of right-wing Tory MP Natalie Elphicke to Labour.
The Dover MP quit the Conservative Party and launched an attack on the PM, accusing him of failing to control Britain’s borders and build enough houses.
